Jane picked nervously at the bottom rim of her wine glass with her fingernail, making a barely perceptible tinkling noise that satisfied her anxieties. She had spent the afternoon comforting Robin in his teething pain. Graham had surprisingly stayed away in the study for the large majority of the day. It was not abnormal for the two of them to see very little of each other even though they shared a home. But since the formal betrothal, she had not experienced a day of largely separate activities, making her now worry.

For months, Jane had become an expert in keeping her schedule in such a way that Mr. Hamilton would not find need to accompany her in the mundane tasks of her role. And before he stormed into her bedroom to offer they wed right away, her suite of rooms was a sanctuary for her own amusements and entertainments, usually in the company of her nephew.

But the man across from her shifted nervously in his seat, and Jane’s mind naturally began to conjure a litany of reasons for him to suddenly wish to call off their betrothal. This did not make logical sense, but men and women in the throes of Cupid’s passions rarely relied upon such common methods as reason and logic to dictate their behavior. The silence in the dining room escalated Jane’s fears to the point of her legitimately worrying she was about to lose the only man she would indeed throw caution to the wind for and have jumped into a carriage racing for Gretna Green, no better than a lovesick maiden. Realizing what that signified, she drew in a breath and held it.

Within a moment, she was prepared to blurt out she would marry him that evening and they would spend this night and every night thereafter as husband and wife, her English notions of decorum be damned!

Graham cleared his throat to signal he wished to speak before Jane gathered up the courage to claim her Scotsman.

“There has been a change in my plans for our betrothal . . . and I am anticipating you will be in agreement.”

A hollow ripple a despair trembled within her heart, resonating in her lower stomach as Jane’s worst fear appeared to be coming true. She opened her mouth to speak, yet the strong woman she had relied upon for so much in the year and quarter since she had lost her father utterly failed her by refusing to surface. Graham waited patiently during her silence.

Footmen began carrying in delicate porcelain vessels of stewed meats, vegetables, and a healthy portion of bread. The rustic fare of Starvet House offered Jane a much more palatable dining experience than the fussy plates of London and high society. And though she had been hungry before, she allowed her plate to be served with food she knew was unlikely to be eaten as with her courage, so had gone her appetite.

“I shall leave on the morrow to Edinburgh. I finalized the plans for the resurrection of Blaylock and must see to hiring craftsmen to bring back and begin the foundation work.”

The idea of building in early February perplexed Jane. Although the winter had been milder than she had expected, it was not suitable temperatures for her to imagine men working on such a structure.

“Will it not be too cold?” she managed.

Graham helped himself to heaping mouthfuls of his dinner before responding. Jane continued to pick at her wine glass in front of him. He worried for a moment that the woman wasn’t eating when she finally lifted a fork and halfheartedly poked at her stewed venison.  

“With my injury, I did not direct the clearing of the property as much as I should. Now that my staff here, and those I sent to my father’s estate, are healed and hardy, we can begin work. It will still be long into late March before the foundation stones are set as I am intending on a significant improvement over my great-grandfather’s modest home.”

Jane nearly choked on her sip of wine as the man in front of her used the term modest to refer to a home no one in their right mind would have declared so. Mention of his father’s home though, piqued her interest. “I forgot you did not need to live here at Starvet with me. You risked the gossip and danger to your reputation to remain here instead of moving to your father’s estate?”